Top 100 books on Banned Books

By: Charles Darwin

But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this -- we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws. -- Whewell: Bridgewater Treatise. The only distinct meaning of the word 'natural' is STATED, FIXED or SETTLED; since what is natural as much requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, i.e., to effect it contin...

By: Theodore Dreiser

THE MAGNET ATTRACTING?A WAIF AMID FORCES. When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister?s address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignoranc...

By: Frederich Schiller

Excerpt: This play is to be regarded merely as a dramatic narrative in which, for the purpose of tracing out the innermost workings of the soul, advantage has been taken of the dramatic method, without otherwise conforming to the stringent rules of theatrical composition, or seeking the dubious advantage of stage adaptation. It must be admitted as somewhat inconsistent that three very remarkable people, whose acts are dependent on perhaps a thousand contingencies, should...

By: Aristophanes

By: John Stuart Mill

By: Gustave Flaubert

Excerpt: It was at Megara, a suburb of Carthage, in the gardens of Hamilcar. The soldiers whom he had commanded in Sicily were having a great feast to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Eryx, and as the master was away, and they were numerous, they ate and drank with perfect freedom.

By: Jean de la Fontaine

LIFE OF JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. Jean de La Fontaine was born on the 8th of July, 1621, at Chateau-Thierry, and his family held a respectable position there. His education was neglected, but he had received that genius which makes amends for all. While still young the tedium of society led him into retirement, from which a taste for independence afterwards withdrew him. He had reached the age of twenty-two, when a few sounds from the lyre of Malherbe, heard by accident, awok...

By: Joseph Lewis French

By: James Legge

The Master said, ?Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? ?Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?? ?Is he not a man of complete virtue, who feels no discomposure though men may take no note of him??

By: Algernon Charles Swinburne

Excerpt: A BALLAD OF LIFE. I FOUND in dreams a place of wind and flowers, Full of sweet trees and colour of glad grass, In midst whereof there was A lady clothed like summer with sweet hours. Her beauty, fervent as a fiery moon, Made my blood burn and swoon Like a flame rained upon. Sorrow had filled her shaken eyelids? blue, And her mouth?s sad red heavy rose all through Seemed sad with glad things gone. She held a little cithern by the strings, Shaped heartwise, strung...

By: Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945

By: Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375

By: Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375

By: Elinor Glyn

I feel now, when my ?Three Weeks? is to be launched in a new land, where I have many sympathetic friends, that, owing to the misunderstanding and misrepresentation it received from nearly the entire press and a section of the public in England, I would like to state my view of its meaning. (As I wrote it, I suppose it could be believed I know something about that!) For me ?the Lady? was a deep study, the analysis of a strange Slav nature, who, from circumstances and educ...

By: L. Frank Baum

Introduction: None of us, whether children or adults, needs an introduction to Mother Goose. Those things which are earliest impressed upon our minds cling to them most tenaciously The snatches sung in the nursery are never forgotten, nor are they ever recalled without bringing back with them myriads of slumbering feelings and half-forgotten images.

By: Molière, 1622-1673

Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere, stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris in January, 1622, where his father held a position in the royal household, he was educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and for some time studied law, which he soon abandoned for the stage. His life was spent in Paris and in the provinces, acting, directing performances, managing theaters, and writing plays. He had his share of appla...